Did my rabbit scratch her eye? : Illnesses, Injuries and Parasites

Rabbits for profit… Rabbits for fun… Rabbits for just about everyone…

RabbitTalk.com has a new visual style and some new features!It's a big change, and it'll take a bit for everybodyto get used to, but we hope you will love it!

RabbitTalk has changed hosts.The amazing response to our recent donation campaign hasallowed us a significant upgrade to the type of hosting we can purchase.The new server is performing wonderfully so far!Thank you to all who have helped!

RabbitTalk Blogs are reinstated.We now have sufficient resources to continue providing our member blogs.We apologize for the brief interruption in service while we moved.

We noticed that one of our rabbits had something strange with her right eye. The fur around her eye looked slightly scruffy (and possibly scratched) and the inner corner of her eye appeared to be red. We're not sure if she accidentally scratched herself or if it's actually something else (like an eye infection). As for her behavior, she was eager to eat the pellets we gave her, but when we had nothing to offer her, she was unusually quiet and withdrawn. While she's normally quiet, she was much more quiet today, so we're not sure if it was because she was in pain, if she was frightened by the music, or if it was a combination of both.

We did want to call the vet, but it's very late at night, so we're seeking some answers on here. We're hoping to call the vet tomorrow though.

Here is an Imgur album of her eye. The last image is what her normal eye looks like. I sincerely apologize for the low quality! And here is a gif of her injured eye compared to her normal one. (It's blurry in the beginning, but near the end it's a bit easier to see.)

Could anyone please tell us if her eye is scratched or if it's something else? What should we do with her eye?

As best I can tell from the image and gif, it seems to be a slight inflammation at the corner of the eye, possibly the tear duct. It doesn't take much to irritate an eye. Sometimes an inflammation is a result of an issue with the teeth, but this looks fairly minor. You might want to avoid the loud music, at least until she is back to normal, if it is affecting her behaviour.

A warm teabag (either black tea or chamomile) gently held against the corner of the eye may help, but if you intend to take her to the vet in any case, you may want to hold off on the home remedies. Is your vet knowledgeable about rabbits? Unfortunately, many of them are not.

If she were mine, I'd try the tea and/or a terramycin eye ointment. If you can't get it locally, try eBay. It's been a while since I've needed to buy any, but it was less than $10.

MaggieJ wrote:As best I can tell from the image and gif, it seems to be a slight inflammation at the corner of the eye, possibly the tear duct. It doesn't take much to irritate an eye. Sometimes an inflammation is a result of an issue with the teeth, but this looks fairly minor. You might want to avoid the loud music, at least until she is back to normal, if it is affecting her behaviour.

A warm teabag (either black tea or chamomile) gently held against the corner of the eye may help, but if you intend to take her to the vet in any case, you may want to hold off on the home remedies. Is your vet knowledgeable about rabbits? Unfortunately, many of them are not.

If she were mine, I'd try the tea and/or a terramycin eye ointment. If you can't get it locally, try eBay. It's been a while since I've needed to buy any, but it was less than $10.

Hi there! Thanks for the response. We checked on her today. Her eye looks fine and overall, her condition is much better compared to before. The redness is gone and her fur looks normal. If her eye does get worse, we'll call the vet (who is fortunately knowledgeable about rabbits), but if we can't contact them, then we'll try the home remedies you suggested. As for the loud music, someone who was unaware of her situation was playing it in another room. We usually don't play music out loud.

Rabbits and music . . . sometimes it works, sometimes it just adds stress. When my son was a kid, he had a pet rabbit who absolutely swooned for the Righteous Brothers' Unchained Melody. Buffy liked soft, sappy music of any kind, but that was her favourite. She just melted into a boneless puddle of bunny whenever we played it for her. Quite funny!

Rabbits and music . . . sometimes it works, sometimes it just adds stress. When my son was a kid, he had a pet rabbit who absolutely swooned for the Righteous Brothers' Unchained Melody. Buffy liked soft, sappy music of any kind, but that was her favourite. She just melted into a boneless puddle of bunny whenever we played it for her. Quite funny!

Aww, that sounds adorable! :) We've played music for our rabbits before (the soft, quiet kind) and they seemed to enjoy it. They would peer at the music source curiously before snuggling down.